Tuesday, July 19, 2011

It's Crunch Time!

Hi folks,

I'm writing to say that I'm sorry. Why, you ask? Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to sign off for a little while. You see, I'm right in the thick of set 2 trials with the cane toads, and as you saw from my last post, I've got 13 (well, 11 really) leaf litter toads that are being conditioned and will start trials at the end of this week. This is absolutely GREAT news, being that I'll be able to collect data on 20 cane toads and at least 8 leaf litter toads by the end of the summer.

So why the disappearing act? Even though I'm excited to have so much going on, it also means a lot of work for me. I'm leaving in just a few weeks, so I've got to hurry up and get everything done! When I'm testing 3 groups of 2 species of toads, one at night and the other during the day, I'm working 14+ hours every single day. I can honestly say that I'm very excited, and the prospect of working so much doesn't phase me, but I know I'm not going to have much time to do anything else.... and that includes writing blog posts. So sayonara for now; I'll write when I can, but please don't expect to see anything new until the middle of August. Ahhh, who am I kidding - I'm sure I'll write a couple in between now and then, but maybe, maybe once a week at the most.

I'll have lots to share when I get back to Lubbock and start analyzing my data, so please, please come back and see me in August when school starts back up again! Until then I'll be running as many trials as I can, packing up my equipment (and clothes!) and heading back to Austin, and attending the ESA conference this year!

Happy Toading!
~Amanda

P.S. I'll leave you with this great Capybara family that lives behind the Gamboa Resort. There's about a dozen (or more!), and they've been hanging around everytime we've gone to the pool this summer.